Longinus

There are two Legions VI for a while, one under Octavian, the other under Mark Antony: one carries the epithet Ferrata, the other Victrix. Victrix ends up kicking the shit out of Ferrata at Actium, so in retrospect that’s pretty apt.

Longinus only joins the remains of Ferrata a few decades thereafter, when their brass bulls have been knocked around, their she-wolves tarnished. Mostly they repeat cruel jokes about Herod, tell war stories and dice. He doesn’t care. He’s young, strong and ironclad, eager for his glory days, ready to grind the heathen under the wheels of blood and summer.

A story about Longinus, published on Monday, June 7, 2010, at 7:00 am.